Removing birch trees at Alderley Edge on Sunday 28th September 2025

It was lovely to meet up with several members of MNTV where we welcomed two new members on a lovely autumn day.  We walked along the track from the rangers yard with two wheelbarrows full of tools, tree poppers, saws, loppers, etc.  We unlocked the gate to the Engine Vein mine entrance and went through locking the gate behind us just in case the public decided to follow.  One of the fun bits for me of volunteering with MNTV is getting to go places the public don’t have access to.

The task was to remove vegetation, mainly birch trees, from the rocks above the mine to prevent the roots damaging the mine.

We set to work. Any trees that we couldn’t get out with the specialist tree poppers we removed the tops and left a stump so it could be winched out later.

We found some lovely examples of Amanita muscaria  mushrooms amongst the saplings – they look just like the mushrooms in children’s story books:

The second task was to use the saplings we were removing to create a basket weave fence around the area.

This will help keep people out and disguise the metal stock fencing. 

We worked all day but found time to eat cake and chat.

By the end we had cleared a lot of the birch saplings off the rocks and had had fun “basket” weaving the brash into the fence:

Once we had collected all the tools we went to look at the mine entrance which is hidden in the rocks unusually above the gully. The door is an old bank vault door.

We walked back to the cars tired but satisfied that we had done a good job in good company.

Jenny

Cutting back Blackthorn at Lyme Park - Sunday 21st September 2025

Seven MNTV-ers met Rangers Chris and Jason in the main car park at Lyme Park on a cool but dry morning (a huge difference to the deluge of rain that fell yesterday!!).

We were transported back to the admissions hut in the NT vehicle in a couple of trips, and driven up the short drive, through the wooden gate, to Red Lane, which is just outside the boundary of Lyme Park. 

Part way up Red Lane, we went into a Council owned field where we've worked previously, pulling Hymalayan Balsam.  This time we were cutting back Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) - a thorny native British shrub/small tree known for it's early white blossoms in Spring and the dark blue-black fruit (called Sloes) in Autumn. We were cutting it back to the fence line so that the meadow became much larger and could be used for a variety of purposes in the future by the NT.

We were SO lucky with the weather as it improved during the day, and was very sunny for most the the afternoon.

Initially we loaded the dead Blackthorn that had been previously cut onto the back of the trailer, so it could be transported into Lyme Park and disposed of another time. The trailer was re-filled multiple times during the day as we continued to cut the Blackthorn back.

We had our usual break for coffee and cake in the morning, and a lunch break at 1pm, finishing the day soon after 3pm.

We were pleased with what we'd achieved but, as there is still more to deal with, it may be our task next time we visit Lyme Park.

Sue B

Various jobs at Formby on Sunday 14th September 2025

Four of us joined Bree and Jess for a day at the seaside.  The original job planned for today had to be changed due to machinery malfunction, but they had some good alternatives for us to get stuck into.

The first job involved a fire - eat your heart out Neil, Andy & Jack!  There were large piles of brash and cuttings plus loads and loads of chestnut fencing that had all been removed when dismantling Victoria Road car park.  Our aim was to get this done before the rain started at lunchtime.  Talk about precision work - as  the last lot was put on the fire the first spots of rain started to fall!

The second job was to complete a wall of double/triple layers of fence posts.  This is to replace fallen down fencing which was to separate different size stones for the paths.

Finally, we dismantled, de-nailed and cleared timber from the yard and stacked it in a massive skip.  Again a lot of this had come from Victoria Road.

As far as the new car park is concerned, it is well under way and surprisingly is ahead of schedule with it hoping to be complete for next spring.

Bree and Jess were more than happy with what had been achieved, as these were jobs that kept being put on the back burner for more pressing jobs.

Thanks to my colleagues for their hard work and good company.

Christine

Social and Workday at Alderley Edge - Sunday 7th September 2025

On Sunday 7th September we had our first combined social event and workday.  We were due to work at Chirk but due to low volunteer numbers the workday was cancelled and we instead had a last minute change of plan...

During the morning we had a tour of Wood Mine which was a guided tour conducted by the Derbyshire Caving Club as part of their open weekend.  Four of us attended the tour and had an amazing morning learning about the history of the mine and touring the underground tunnels and chambers.  Please see a selection of photos from the mine below.

After exiting the mine we encountered torrential rain so had a very wet walk back to the rangers yard to contemplate whether or not we could go ahead with the afternoon workday task of putting up bird boxes.  There were only three volunteers for the afernoon session but due to the nature of the task it was easily completed with such a small group.

After a short lunch break the rain stopped and we managed to get out in the woodland to put up bird boxes, it's the first time I have used a drill on a workday and we discovered that silver birch are the best trees to drill into!

We all had a lovely day.  We plan to organise another mine tour social in Spring 2026.  There are plenty more bird boxes to put up in future workdays.

Denise Clark
Worksite/Social leader